Safety electrical plug

Abstract

An improved electrical plug household use to protect household occupants from electrical shocks while inserting or removing the plug from an electrical receptacle. The plug, in general, is a standard household electrical plug with or without a ground prong. The improvement of the present invention is to mount an elastically collapsible electrically insulating hood on the plug surrounding the prongs so that when the improved plug is inserted more than half way into the household electrical receptacle, the extent of the prongs not yet within the receptacle is surrounded by the hood and inaccessible to contact by household occupants, especially children. The hood can be a plastic bellows integrally molded with the body of the plug or the hood can be formed separatly and glued to the body of the plug. The hood can also be a foamed polymer tube section glued to the body of the plug.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. In a household safety electrical plug comprising an electrically insulating body serving as a conductor casing and at least two spaced apart electrically conducting prongs extending a preselected length outwardly from one face of the body, the prongs being substantially parallel and substantially of equal length with each other, wherein the improvement comprises: an elastically collapsible electrically insulating circumferential hood having a first end and a second end, the first end of the hood being immovably attached to the body, the hood laterally surrounding the prongs, the second end of the hood extending at least about one half the outwardly extending length of the prongs, the hood being substantially coaxial with the prongs, the hood being elastically collapsible in the direction of the longitudinal axes of the prongs at least one half of the outwardly extending length of the prongs so that when the plug is inserted more than at least one half of the outwardly extending length of the prongs into a household electrical receptacle, the exposed portions of the prongs are subtantially covered by the hood, the hood being dimensioned to collapse substantially within a space projected in the normal direction from the face of the body of the plug from which the electrically conducting prongs extend such that the body is not flush with the receptacle. 
     
     
       2. The plug of claim 1 wherein the second end of the hood extends at least about two thirds of the outwardly extending length of the prongs so that when the plug is inserted more than at least one third of the outwardly extending length of the prongs into a household electrical receptacle, the exposed portions of the prongs are substantially covered by the hood. 
     
     
       3. The plug of claim 1 wherein the second end of the hood extends at least about the outwardly extending length of the prongs so that when the plug is inserted about any length of the prongs into a household electrical receptacle, the exposed portions of the prongs are substantially covered by the hood. 
     
     
       4. The plug of claim 1 wherein the hood comprises a foamed polymer material. 
     
     
       5. The plug of claim 1 wherein the body defines a step, the step being formed in the periphery of the face of the body from which the prongs extend, the first end of the hood being positioned in and attached to the body in the step so that when the plug is fully inserted into a household electrical receptacle, the hood can collapse along the step. 
     
     
       6. The plug of claim 1 wherein the hood is bellows-shaped. 
     
     
       7. The plug of claim 6 wherein the hood and the body are integrally molded as a unit of synthetic resinous material. 
     
     
       8. The plug of claim 1 wherein the first end of the hood is adhesively bonded to the body of the plug. 
     
     
       9. The plug of claim 8 wherein a pressure sensitive adhesive is used to adhesively bond the first end of the hood to the body of the plug. 
     
     
       10. In a household safety electrical plug comprising an electrically insulating body serving as a conductor casing and at least two spaced apart electrically conducting prongs extending a preselected length outwardly from one face of the body, the prongs being substantially parallel and substantially of equal length with each other, wherein the improvement comprises: an elastically collapsible electrically insulating circumferential hood having a first end and a second end, the first end of the hood being immovably attached to the body, the hood laterally surrounding the prongs, the second end of the hood extending at least about one half the outwardly extending length of the prongs, the hood being substantially coaxial with the prongs, the hood being elastically collapsible in the direction of the longitudinal axes of the prongs at least one half of the outwardly extending length of the prongs so that when the plug is inserted more than at least one half of the outwardly extending length of the prongs into a household electrical receptacle, the exposed portions of the prongs are substantially covered by the hood and wherein the body defines a peripheral recess, the recess positioned in the face of the body from which the prongs extend, the first end of the hood positioned within and attached to the body in the recess so that when the plug is fully inserted into a household electrical receptacle, the hood can collapse substantially within the recess. 
     
     
       11. An elastically collapsible electrically insulating sleeve-like hood having a first end and a second end, the first end being immovably attached substantially normal to and aligned with a face plate of closely similar transverse dimensions, the length of the hood between the first end and the second end of the uncollapsed free standing hood being more than about 0.2 inch and less than about 1 inch, the face plate having at least two perforations therethrough configured so that a conventional household electrical plug having a body and at least two prongs can be passed through the at least two perforations until the face plate substantially lies against the plug body whereupon the prongs are circumferentially surrounded by the hood over at least about one-half of the length of the prongs, the hood being dimensioned to collapse substantially within a space projected in the normal direction from one face of the face plate such that the body is not flush with the faceplate. 
     
     
       12. The hood and face plate of claim 11 wherein the hood and face plate are integrally molded together as a unit of synthetic resinous material. 
     
     
       13. The hood and face plate of claim 12 wherein the hood is bellows-shaped.